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When you get to camp, the deck and aluminum extension bars turn into a large table for cooking and food prep. The Wingman turns a canoe into a really stable mother ship, capable of carrying fresh food and cold drinks, and accommodating large dogs or standing anglers. Who really wants the raft and all the fussiness it calls for anyway?

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Jackson Kayak Tip of the Week By Zofia Tula Flatwater paddling allows us to focus on the small things, which in turn improves our freestyle kayaking. I think this is especially true for women who have a harder time covering up improper technique with strength. And all paddlers can benefit from learning symmetry and proper

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By Sam Boykin While visiting Charlotte, N.C., this summer, 18-year-old Lauren Seitz, along with several other members of the Westerville, Ohio, church choir, decided to check out the U.S. National Whitewater Center (USNWC). The sprawling outdoor sports complex has mountain bike trails, rock climbing walls and ziplines. But the main attraction is the Class IV

Cuyahoga River, Ohio

Cuyahoga River, Ohio

Did you ever hear about the river that caught fire? That was the Cuyahoga. The waterway was so full of industrial waste that its surface burned no fewer than 13 times, including the devastating 1969 blaze that helped spark large-scale environmental policy initiatives. These days, it’s a great place for a paddle.

After a particularly bad flare-up in 1969, an article in Time magazine said the Cuyahoga “oozes rather than flows.” The attention helped spawn the Clean Water Act and the Environmental Protection Agency, and subsequent clean-up efforts have turned the river into a paddling hotspot rather than a literal one.

The Cuyahoga also is benefitting from dam deconstruction efforts, which are being undertaken to help it meet Ohio’s water quality standards for aquatic life and habitat. The Kent Dam was removed in 2004, the Monroe Falls dam in 2008, and just this December the feds approved the $1 million removal of two more low-head dams in Cuyahoga Falls, to take place this summer. In the next few years the Gorge and Brecksville dams will also be removed, restoring nearly 60 miles of the Cuyahoga as free-flowing.

Meandering 85 miles from Burton, Ohio to Lake Erie, the Cuyahoga boasts several popular paddling sections, including a 9-mile run from Russell Park to Camp Hi and a 10-mile stretch from Camp Hi to SR 303, and the 40-mile section from Tannery Park to Cleveland.

Local advocacy group Friends of the Crooked River, which is spearheading plans to create an official water trail from the river’s headwaters to Lake Erie, sponsors paddling trips on various river section all summer. This year’s theme? From Burning River to Earning River. –EB